Anonymous
11/20/2018 06:51
Subject: car advice - we need somethig that can seat 6 but is easy to park
We just traded in our Mazda5 for a Pilot, and looked closely at the Highlander. Here are my pros/cons list:
Mazda5 is awesome to park and generally a tough little car. It was perfect for us w/2 small kids and occasional extra passengers, mostly driving in the city. The extra row is very tight; I'm 5'3" and could squeeze just fine but the climb into the seats was not fun for anyone who is larger than a small child. They stopped making the Mazda5 a few years ago but you could still find one used.
We were initially going to buy a Highlander to replace it, because we have a Rav4 and like Toyota. But the Highlander 3rd row was useless - it was literally no bigger than the Mazda5 despite being a much bigger vehicle. We don't need a 3rd row often, but it seemed silly to buy a larger car if we didn't have that functionality. So we bought a Pilot. The third row can fit my giant 6'2" teenager and there's a button that makes it easy to get in and out of. It's the same length as the Highlander (give or take an inch) and about 6" shorter than the Honda/Toyota minivans.
If you're really obsessed with size (I was) go to https://www.cars.com/research/compare/ and you can enter various models/years and get all the dimensions.
Mazda5 is awesome to park and generally a tough little car. It was perfect for us w/2 small kids and occasional extra passengers, mostly driving in the city. The extra row is very tight; I'm 5'3" and could squeeze just fine but the climb into the seats was not fun for anyone who is larger than a small child. They stopped making the Mazda5 a few years ago but you could still find one used.
We were initially going to buy a Highlander to replace it, because we have a Rav4 and like Toyota. But the Highlander 3rd row was useless - it was literally no bigger than the Mazda5 despite being a much bigger vehicle. We don't need a 3rd row often, but it seemed silly to buy a larger car if we didn't have that functionality. So we bought a Pilot. The third row can fit my giant 6'2" teenager and there's a button that makes it easy to get in and out of. It's the same length as the Highlander (give or take an inch) and about 6" shorter than the Honda/Toyota minivans.
If you're really obsessed with size (I was) go to https://www.cars.com/research/compare/ and you can enter various models/years and get all the dimensions.
Anonymous
11/20/2018 06:42
Subject: Re:car advice - we need somethig that can seat 6 but is easy to park
Stick with the Sienna
Anonymous
11/20/2018 06:38
Subject: car advice - we need somethig that can seat 6 but is easy to park
So we may need to get a car that can seat 6 adults (although 2 of us are small). We usualy7 have 3 in the car on the weekdays but the weekends we will have 6, so its just for the weekends that we need the extra seating. We already have a minivan and if thats the best option we would just keep my Toyota Sienna for a while longer. Are there any other options out there? I am looking for something that is not too big but we will be comfy in. I thought the Mazda 5 might work or a Honda Pilot. How is the 3rd row seating in these or the Toyota Highlander? These are the only ones we have thought of so far. For my benefit it needs to be easy to park too. My Sienna is hard to park in my driveway because its so long and has poor visibility from the back side windows (and no back up camera).